Quotes Corner

Sunday, 11 February 2018

Although the custom of giving lace-edged, heart-shaped cards
to sweethearts and lovers is Victorian in origin, the association of the
fourteenth of February with romance goes back a lot further than that. In Roman
times it was the eve of Lupercalia, a pagan festival of youth and fertility.
During the festival, those taking part chose their sweethearts by way of a
lottery. Stripped naked, the young men ‘chastised’ their chosen women on the
bottom with goat or dog-skin whips. This was supposed to improve fertility!

While actually unconnected with the celebrations and
traditions of the day, St. Valentine – who was renowned for his chastity as
well as supporting love and marriage – was martyred on this same date. In about
AD 197, Valentine of Terni, a Christian and Bishop of Interamna (now Terni) was,
it is thought, imprisoned for his faith on the orders of a Roman called Placid
Furius (yes, really!) and tortured before being beheaded on the Via Flaminia in
Rome. Legend has it he was executed on the fourteenth of February; in all
probability, however, somebody thought it was too good an opportunity to miss.

In the reign of Emperor Claudius (about AD 289) another
priest called Valentine, also a Christian, seems to have been arrested for
giving relief to prisoners. Sundry, improbable, stories are attached to his
name, where he variously converted his jailer to Christianity by healing the
sight of the man’s daughter; fell in love with the daughter and sent her a love
letter ‘From your Valentine’; and, when Claudius supposedly banned marriage
among young men to make them better soldiers, Valentine was purported to have
continued to perform weddings, thus leading to his arrest. Valentine of Rome is
also said to have died on the fourteenth of February.

Approaching two hundred years later, in about AD 496, Gelasius,
the Pope of that time, ordered that 14 February was to be a Christian feast day
and would be named St. Valentine’s Day. This smacks rather strongly of the later
claiming of the day following All Hallows’ Eve (Hallowe’en) by the Church as All Saints’ Day somewhere around
835. Originally introduced in May, to commemorate martyrs without a particular feast day, it was moved to the first of November to counteract paganism. The last day of the Celtic calendar, the 31st October was the date when the ancient ritual of Samhain was celebrated. Samhain thus became overshadowed by All Hallows' Eve and the Church took back an edge of control. Claim a pagan rite as your own and you not only save face, you can keep
the people under your thumb!

It would seem that the connection with the giving of
(generally) anonymous love-tokens stems from the belief held in medieval
England and France, that the beginning of the second fortnight of the second
month of the year was when the birds began to mate. In 1382, Chaucer wrote, in
respect of the betrothal of Richard II to Anne of Bohemia, ‘For this was on St. Valentine's Day/ When
every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.’ In the liturgical calendar of
Valentine of Genoa, however, the saint’s day was the second of May – a more
appropriate time for birds to mate in England. This is considered the first
connection of St. Valentine’s Day with romantic love, nevertheless.

By 1601, the feast day was enough of an entity for the Bard
himself to have Ophelia lament, ‘For this
was on St. Valentine's Day/ When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.’
Two hundred and fifty years later, love-notes had become popular, and in 1797
was published The Young Man’s Valentine
Writer, a guide to messages and verse for the aspiring lover.

As with all such festivals, traditions and customs have
become synonymous with the occasion. The Roman introduction of chance into the
choosing of a partner can be seen in the custom whereby the first member of the
opposite sex one sees on the fourteenth is then said to be one’s Valentine.

Another custom slowly being lost in the mists of time is
that where young girls put bay leaves beneath their pillows before going to bed
on St. Valentine’s Day, in the hopes of dreaming of future husbands. Other
games of divination included this popular one: Name(s) of the favoured one(s) were
written on slips of paper, enclosed in balls of moist clay and then dropped
into a bowl of water. The first piece of paper thus named to rise to the
surface would reveal the future sweetheart. Once a girl had chosen her
Valentine, he was honour bound to present her with a lover’s gift.

An Illicit Letter, Vittoio Reggianini

In the Regency era, lovers of all walks of life might
exchange little hand-written billets doux
or poems, and gentlemen would present posies of flowers to their sweethearts.
Little gifts, of ribbons, lace, a book or perhaps a favourite sweetmeat, were
considered unexceptionable tokens of affection, although these were not
confined to St. Valentine’s Day. That custom had begun to fade as far
previously as the mid eighteenth century, although still continued in parts of
Northern England. Nonetheless, as the nineteenth century progressed and postal
distribution became more accessible to ordinary folk, anonymous cards were
possible. Manufactories began to mass-produce tokens for St. Valentine’s Day,
and the downward spiral into commercialism had begun.

Sunday, 24 December 2017

Mince Pie

Are you ready for a mince pie? This perennial favourite, you
may be astonished to learn (or not), was once actually made with meat. Known in
England for centuries, the original combination of beef (or neat’s tongue) and
dried fruit has gradually evolved into the individual fruit pies we know today.
Here are two recipes from The London Art of Cookery by John Farley, 1811. The
first is with meat, the second without.

TAKE a neat's tongue, and boil it two hours; then skin it, and chop it as small as possible. Chop very small three pounds of beef suet, the same quantity of good baking apples, four pounds of currants clean washed, picked, and well dried before the fire, a pound of jar raisins stoned and chopped small, and a pound of powder sugar. Mix them all together with half an ounce of mace, the same quantity of grated nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, the same quantity of cinnamon, and a pint of French brandy. Make a rich puff paste, and as the pattypans are filled, put in a little candied citron and orange cut in little pieces. Put close down in a pot what mincemeat is left, and cover it up; but never put any citron or orange to it till wanted for use.

Or, shred three pounds of suet very fine, and chopped as small as possible. Take two pounds of raisins stoned, and chopped as fine as possible; two pounds of currants nicely picked, washed, rubbed, and dried at the fire; half a hundred of fine pippins pared, cored, and chopped small; half a pound of fine sugar pounded fine; a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same quantity of cloves, and two large nutmegs, all beat fine. Put all together into a great pan, and mix them well together with half a pint of brandy, and the same quantity of sack. Put it close down into a stone pan, and it will keep good for months.

Yorkshire Christmas Pie

No Yorkshire gentleman in Georgian times would have suffered
Christmas without this indulgence. It was a good way of showing
prosperity. The pie was made from whatever birds were available on the estate
and comprised a three to five bird roast which was then encased in pastry. A
common combination was chicken, pheasant and pigeon, all of which were boned
and then stuffed inside each other. Particularly in Yorkshire, this was often
given as a gift.

Christmas Pie

A more elaborate version of this dish
caused the great bustard to be driven to extinction in Britain by the 1840s.
Great bustards were prized for their flavour and cost about two guineas each in
the first years of the nineteenth century. French chef Grimod de la Reyniere
included in his book of that time, L’Almanach des Gourmands, a now
famous recipe incorporating the bustard. It began with an olive stuffed with
capers and anchovies, which was pushed into a garden warbler. This was then put
into an ortolan, followed by a lark, a thrush, a quail, a larded lapwing, a
plover, a red-legged partridge, a woodcock, a teal, a guinea fowl, a duck, a
fattened pullet, a pheasant, a turkey and finally the bustard, each time the
whole being placed into the larger bird. The stuffed bustard was then cooked in
a sealed pot with ham, carrots, onions, celery, herbs, spices and lard for
twenty-four hours. It was the kind of dish which would have graced one of the
Prince Regent’s grand banquets.

In Carpet of Snowdrops, Joscelin brings a Christmas Pie for Eloise
and Goody. Goody is somewhat tickled:

“Christmas joy to you, too,
Goody. I have a gift for you as well.” Joscelin handed over the basket.

As Goody removed the blue and
white cloth, a small gasp escaped her.

“Christmas Pie, what a treat!
Thank you.”

“I had my cook prepare it for you
this morning.”

Eloise screwed up her nose at the
large domed pie. It had golden pastry decorated with crimped edges and
elaborate pastry leaves and berries.

“What is in it?”

“Pigeon, chicken and pheasant,
each bird being used to stuff the next in size,” Joscelin answered.

“My mouth is watering already,”
Goody put in with a smile. “If you have no objection, my lord, step into the
kitchen. I have some mulled wine heating.”

“I will be there directly. There
is one more gift for you both. I will fetch it in.”

He went back outside, returning
almost immediately with a small fir tree.

“Whatever have you brought that
in for?” Goody demanded, reappearing with a steaming glass in her hand.

“I spent some time in a Prussian
camp after Waterloo,” he explained. “It is a tradition in Prussia to bring a
tree into the house and hang decorations on it. I also read somewhere that
Queen Charlotte caused one to be put up at a children’s party a few years ago.”

“What a delightful idea!”

Here is a recipe from the time:

HAVING made a good standing crust, with the wall and bottom very thick, take and

bone a turkey, a goose, a fowl, a partridge, and a pigeon. Season them well, and take half an ounce of mace, the same quantity of nutmegs, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, and half an ounce of black pepper, all beat fine together. Then add two large spoonsful of salt: mix all